The Rosenbergs… Revisited

Zman’s article on the execution of the Rosenbergs (February 2011) elicited numerous responses from readers, including a plethora of letters to the editor. Two of those letters were particularly well thought out and detailed, and critical of certain aspects. We, in turn, forwarded the letters to David Alman, one of the original advocates of the Rosenbergs when they were alive, and a person from whom we gleaned much information for the article. Below are the two letters to the editor and David Alman’s replies.

Robbing Lincoln’s Grave

It was one of the most unthinkable crimes in American history. A group of outlaws dared to steal the body of arguably the most popular American president of all time. Incredibly enough, this bizarre story was overlooked by the media due to a more pressing issue that affected the country at the time — the election crisis of 1876.

Ghost Towns of the World

Populated with buildings and all the trappings of a city — but no residents to be found…. One upon a time they reverberated with life, homes and businesses sprouting up everywhere, but now they lie listless and lifeless. Zman takes you on a visit to a few of the ghost towns scattered around the world to learn how they appeared and what caused them to empty out.

The Stuff of Champions

Alan Veingrad is apparently the only person in the history of professional team sports to become a fully Torah observant Jew. And he was not just any type of player, but a starting member of the Super Bowl XXVII champion Dallas Cowboys. Today he has traded in his helmets for a yarmulke, his uniform for tzitzis, his clean-shaven all-American face for a long, gray beard. Instead of playing to the cheers of 70,000 crazed fans and millions of viewers he travels around inspiring Jews of all types to take on a life of Torah and mitzvos.

Operation Mincemeat

What should the Nazis have done when they discovered the corpse of a British army officer floating in the sea, with an attaché case chained to his coat? Leave it alone! Read the riveting account of one of the most successful tricks played by the Allies against the Nazis, by creating a secret officer who never existed and sending him on a secret mission that was never ordered, bearing military secrets that never existed. The top German generals, and even Hitler himself, were completely taken in by this ruse.

FDIC Bank Takeover

No, they are not bank robbers. They are federal agents who take over banks that are on the verge of bankruptcy. At the height of the recent economic crisis, they were working at a rate of one bank takeover per week. To prevent widespread panic, they operate in utmost secrecy. Read about the federal agency that promises Americans that their money in American banks is safe.

Oops!

Sometimes the most seemingly inconsequential mistakes can have the most far-reaching consequences. Here is a sampling of five of them: The expensive masterpiece accidentally damaged by a slight motion of the hand, the heavily armed British Marines who landed with weapons drawn… in the wrong country, a minor error by a renowned engineering firm that cost $125 Million, the original manuscript of a literary masterpiece that was incinerated by the maid and the most skyscraper… whose windows kept crashing to the street below.